Friday, August 7, 2015

The Cleveland area can easily
be called a hot bed of rugby in the state of Ohio. From a strong youth program and
renowned high school teams to club teams that are consistently at the top of
their league, Cleveland’s
rugby players are comparable to some of the best out there. Now, thanks to the
hard work of a few new members of the city’s rugby community, the city is going
to get its first rugby-specific training site focused on keeping players
operating at top gear both with their health and development.

Over the past few years, a group of personal trainers and
rugby enthusiasts came up with an idea for a training center that would service
the rugby community of the Cleveland
area. There was still one question that lingered.

“How do we create a facility to merge the things that you
need to do in your personal training type scenarios,” said Michael Piaser, one
of the brains behind the new sports complex. “How do you merge that into the
sports side of things?”

The idea was simple: have one building that male and females
players of all ages could go to in an effort to improve on their skills and
train their bodies in ways that would allow them to recover from injuries more
quickly and resist getting them at all. That place will be called the Sports
Performance Institute.

With this idea solidified, Piaser and his team decided to
serve the rugby community with their new facility. Not only is rugby’s
popularity growing but there simply wasn’t anything specialized for rugby
players in the area.

Piaser brings direction to the dream, helping ensure that
everything is planned out and executed properly. The plan is to have a location
in the Valley View area be the one-stop-shop for any and all player improvement
needs. According to Piaser, the facility will have a very unique set-up as
well.

“Our facility will be half turf and half training things,”
he said. “The turf is not going to be big enough to play games but it is big
enough to run drills and do training on skills. I think that’s a pretty
meaningful thing.”

The facility won’t be just a gym with turf, though. The
service that will set the location apart from others like it will be the
guidance provided to players. According to Piaser, trainers at the location
will guide athletes through individually designed exercise plans. The planning
will be essential to players’ future improvement. This service will welcome
teams and players to the facility but also act as consultants to teams set
farther away from the facility. That way everyone has equal access to the quality
services the Institute plans to provide. It is this commitment and approach
that will set SPI apart from all the other gyms in the area.

Once the plan was made, it came time to bring it to the
masses; and Piaser’s group did so in a meaningful and methodical way that
ensured the rugby community would be on board and that the support the
Institute needs to succeed will be there from the start.

“We’ve got a good plan,” Piaser said. “We’ve really got a
good product, here. Now, let’s just make sure that we’re right. If what we
develop is successful and really does the things we say it is going to do, the
community is going to be like, ‘That’s cool.’”

From the start, this endeavor has been a community-centric
project and when it came time to pitch the idea, Piaser and his team went
straight to the people they would be servicing. The group spoke with high
school coaches as far as Medina as well as local backing groups like the 1964
Foundation and the men’s teams in the area. This approach was key because the people
behind SPI want to be a gathering and rallying point for all players and
coaches in the area. According to Piaser, the reception from the rugby
community has been positive.

“So far, the feedback has been pretty positive,” he said.
“This is a win-win for everybody.”

In order to ensure that every member of the rugby community
can be catered to, the Institute will have staff members that specialize in
speed, strength, conditioning as well as a litany of other area. According to
Piaser, there will be people that specialize in working with female players as
well.

Though the Institute’s launch is still a few weeks away,
players and coaches can get in on the ground floor and declare their interest
in what will be offered. Those interested in reserving their spot at the Sports
Performance Institute can go to the Web site and register.